Saturday, 20 April 2013

This week I had an amazing surprise when I got a beautiful dress sent to me from simplydresses.co.nz. I was allowed to pick my favourite dress and believe me it took me a long time to choose! For someone like me (a poor student) I don't own many formal dresses so picking something formal was an absolute dream. I eventually settled on a beautiful A-line, one shoulder dress. The best thing that I felt was that the dress is custom made to your order so there were no issues of ill-fitting dresses and you can even pick the colour that you prefer the dress in. I eventually decided on a lovely dark blue chiffon.

I just love the dress I feel so feminine as I am the sort of girl to live in her Doc Martins and army boots. I think that my favorite part of the dress is the detailing. The one shoulder design with the flowers, I just love!
Have a special occasion coming up? I would highly recommend simplydresses.co.nz to find the perfect dress instead of slouching around the shops!

Friday, 22 March 2013

My Performance Costume brief for this semester is looking at Reusing, Repairing, Restoring etc. At the beginning of the project I really struggled with a theme that I felt fitted into this brief and threw some ideas around. Eventually I came across something that I liked and felt that would produce a great outcome. I came up with the idea of "Make do and Mend". I then thought about how this Make do and Mend mentality was a government slogan that was created in the 1940's wartime due to rationing. So I started to think about 1940's and Make do and Mend and how we use Make do and Mend a lot today due to the current economic crisis.

I started by looking at 1940's and the glamour of the 1940's. I was able to contact my Uncle who luckily had some of my Grans old photos from the 1940's.

Looking at Made do and Mend in Wartime Britain.

Photograph from the 1940's of my Great Grandfather and Great Grandmother.

Again looking at the Make do and Mend mentality.

So after looking at this Make Do and Mend mentality, I then started to think about where clothes tend to rip and how we can fix them.

Tights with ladders.

Jeans with ripped knees.

Torn denim.

Free stitching to create the pattern of rips and tears.

Monoprinting the pattern of the torn tights.

So after looking at torn clothes I wanted to then direct this into looking at Darning Techniques and how to repair items of clothing.

Looking at patching holes in clothing.

Creating mark making from looking at the lines of the stitch.

So here I have done a quick sample looking at patching clothing to fix rips and tears in clothing. I then started to think about hands, as we repair with our hands and we sew with our hands. It got me thinking about how the lines in your hands are very detailed and no two hands are the same.

Printing with hands.

Trying Aquafilm to create these lines in the hand.

Printing and stitching over copies of my 1940's photos.

Here I have been looking at hands and the lines in hands and how they are very detailed and intricate. I have done this through printing and stitching. I then decided to look at Sashiko which is a Japenese technique. Sashiko means "little stabs" and is a process of repairing.

Combining lots of different textures.

Sashiko, created with a running stitch.

I love the bleached marks in the fabric

After looking at these inital Sashiko images I then decided to look at the stitching, bleaching of fabric and texture. I wanted to look at these techniques because I feel that these sum up the above images. So I started by looking at bleaching as in the image above you see that amazing dark splash of colour.

Trying bleaching on paper samples

Mark Making with bleach splashed over it to create interesting shapes and colour.

Marbeling, I tried this because I felt that it created similar shapes to bleaching.

Here I have layered up dye on fabric then bleached some of it.

These samples are a combination of Fabric and Paper. I have dyed up these surfaces and then took off some of the colour with bleaching. I then decided to start looking at texture. I done this because Sashiko is about combining different surfaces together.

Creating texture then stitching it back together.

Using wax to create a rough texture.

Layering up fabric then using a Crackle paint to create lines and texture.

Again using crackle paint to create texture.

Again using crackle paint to create texture.

I dyed up fabric then used a wire brush to texture the fabric.

I used the wire brush to texture the fabric again.

I started to look at alternative ways to create texture, I done this by rubbing the fabric off bark of trees and sticks.

Again I used bark and sticks to texture the fabric.

After creating different types of textures I then wanted to look at other artists who create interesting textures. I looked at Textile Artist Carolyn Saxby who creates mixed media textile pieces.

I love the interesting and beautiful textures of the pieces. I then wanted to look at the stitching and how the pieces are joined together.

Mark making technique looking at stitching and colour.

Here I have sewn together textures to show the joining of the fabrics and how its stitched.

Again looking at joining fabrics

Again looking at joining fabric.

After looking at Sashiko I then found Tokunaga Miyoko who creates garments from using Sashiko.

So what next?

From this point I am now at the stage where I am finishing up my Fabric Samples and I am going to start designing my final garments. As I have been looking a lot at repairing techniques I am planning on bringing the 1940's element back in by making my designs classic 1940's garment shapes.

Thanks for reading and check back as I will keep you updated on my progress!